Kylian Mbappe created football history en route to dumping Manchester City out of the Champions League with a stunning hat-trick.
The 26-year-old brought up his 500th goal contribution in record time – with the second in his treble in an an eventual 3-1 win in the knockout play-off.
Carlo Ancelotti‘s men went into the second leg 3-2 up following last week’s five-goal thriller at the Etihad.
And with just four minutes on the clock in Wednesday night’s affair, Mbappe put his side firmly in the ascendancy with a beautiful lob over Ederson.
The 2018 World Cup winner grabbed his second of the evening in the 33rd minute – cutting inside a sliding Josko Gvardiol before rifling into the near corner.
His strike proved to be a landmark strike – his 500th goal contribution [358 goals, 142 assists] across all competitions between club and country.
In doing so, he becomes the youngest player to reach the milestone at the age of 26 years and 61 days.
Barcelona legend Lionel Messi was the previous record holder, having hit the tally while being a month older than Mbappe.
As for Cristiano Ronaldo, who has scored the most goals in professional football, he was a 28-year-old when he reached 500 goal contributions.
And just after the hour mark, Mbappe put the cherry on top by completing his hat-trick as he now works towards 500 career goals.
Picking up the ball on the right-hand side of the box, he shuffled the ball onto his left foot before curling a glorious shot into the far corner.
It’s his second treble in Real’s colours since joining on a free transfer last summer to bring his total tally in all competitions to 27 goals.
Mbappe’s hat-trick means he is just the fourth player to score a Champions League treble against City.
Messi did so in October 2016 in Guardiola’s return to the Camp Nou, before Christopher Nkunku struck three times against City in RB Leipzig-s 6-3 defeat in 2021.
And Sporting Lisbon’s Viktor Gyokeres fired in a hat-trick during the league phase of Europe’s premier competition earlier this season.
Mbappe’s third of the night is also the seventh Champions League goal he has scored against City – the joint-most alongside Messi.
And only Ronaldo [four] now has more Champions League knockout hat-tricks than Mbappe [two].
In another incredible first, Mbappe is now the only player to both score a European Cup hat-trick at the Bernabeu [Real vs City, 2025] and at the Nou Camp [Paris Saint-Germain vs Barcelona, 2021.]
Speaking after the match, Mbappe said: “”A perfect night for the team. We wanted to win. We wanted to qualify for the next round.
“For us it was only logical that Real Madrid reached the next round of the Champions League.
“When you play against Manchester City it is always a difficult game but we knew that at home we would be very strong.
“We played better as a group and we were able to give a lot of joy to the fans.
“We have to continue in this way if we are to win what we want to win this season.
“I want to play well here, I want to make a mark on the season. I want to write history with Real Madrid.
“The adaptation period for me has ended and now I have to show my quality.”
It wasn’t all bad news for City, as they did score a late consolation goal through Nico Gonzalez – his first for the club since joining from Porto earlier this month.
But City were second best throughout the encounter, and have now been knocked out of Europe by Real for a second season running.
For Real, they will now face either LaLiga rivals Ateltico Madrid or German giants Bayer Leverkusen in the last-16.
